This is why my body works differently on the right side than on the left. Traumatic Brain Injury, October 9, 1992, after a head-on motor vehicle collision. Most people who know me are already familiar with this story. I was 16. I was in a coma for a week. No broken bones; just a super-colossal head injury that left me paralyzed on the right side of my body. See how, in this picture, my right leg is a little bent and my right arm is drawn up? Also please notice the attractive hi-top sneakers I am sporting... that's to prevent my toes from pointing all the way forward and getting stuck that way.
It took a lot of therapy and rehabilitation to get those muscles to release... I don't know the exact terminology... and, basically, my body had to re-learn how to function. How to walk again, for starters. Also how to write, how to hold a utensil and feed myself; things I had always done with my right hand.
Still these days, I catch myself functioning primarily with my left hand, and my right hand drawn up, arm bent at the elbow. When I work out, I have to consciously use my right side in equal measure to my right side. Otherwise, my left side is exhausted and sore while my right side is carefree, light-hearted and annoyingly cheerful. Ha... so to speak.
Sometimes I intentionally over-compensate. For example, sometimes I intentionally lean to the right doing squats, so my right leg will bear more of the brunt... in effort to... "catch up" with my left leg. Sometimes I feel like, if I don't do that, my left side will do most of the work. Check it:
According to THIS website--
The 10 General Physical Skills used by CrossFit are:
- Endurance
- Stamina
- Strength
- Flexibility
- Power
- Speed
- Coordination
- Agility
- Balance
- Accuracy
...and, to that, I must add... "consciously and constantly remembering to use my right side equally as much as my left side."
(I know, right?)
But, putting all that aside... WOW!! I can WALK! I can hold a pen and write with it, having enough strength in my hand to hold onto that pen when I press it against the paper. I can play the guitar! I can run, I can usually complete sentences, I can take care of myself, and I can freakin' do CROSSFIT!!
Consequently, today we did a lot of POWER CLEANS... yet, somehow, my left arm came out of that workout much more tired and achy than my right. Plus a series of scaled PULL-UPS, Still gotta figure that out. BUT I am not giving up.
Point being. I am not who I was before. I am who I am NOW. There is no point in bemoaning the changes that happen in life, regardless of their extent or severity. Life happens. Changes happen. My advice? Since we cannot ever put life in reverse, our only other option is to move forward.
Lots more to say... but I don't want to cram it all into one overly-long blog that no one wants to read to the end. I will write more later.
To summarize the point I am inching toward in this blog... life happens. My intent there is not to come across coldly; my intent is to say, we have no control over some things that go on or that happen to us. What we do have control over is what we do NEXT, after those things happen.
Life is different for me than for a lot of people. My memory sometimes has holes in in like swiss cheese; ask Lena. Ha... but seriously. That is a fact. I could either lay down beneath those weights, or I could push them off and move forward.
#GEAUXSTRONG!!!
